Some names have been changed.) VIC: Victoria Stibbe, my sister MARY-KAY WILMERS (MK): mother of Sam and Will (S&W), deputy editor of the London Review of Books SAM FREARS: Mary-Kay’s son WILL FREARS: Mary-Kay’s son ELSPETH: Elspeth Allison, my mother GEORGE MELLY: jazz singer, critic, writer AB: Alan Bennett, playwright, screenwriter, actor JONATHAN MILLER: theater and opera director, actor TREVOR BROOKING: footballer (West Ham United) JEZ: Jeremy Stibbe, my brother DR. DILLON: doctor at Great Ormond Street Hospital WILLIE CARSON: jockey, TV presenter CLAIRE TOMALIN: biographer and journalist, literary editor of the New Statesman and the Sunday Times TOM TOMALIN: son of Claire Tomalin, Sam’s friend NUNNEY: Mark Nunney, volunteer helper at the Tomalins’ MICHAEL FRAYN: partner of Claire Tomalin, playwright and novelist JOHN LAHR: American theater critic and playwright ANTHEA LAHR: writer PIPPA: nanny to a family in Primrose Hill AMANDA: nanny to a family in Gloucester Crescent RAS WHITTAKER: school friend of Sam’s STEPHEN FREARS: father of Sam and Will, film director BETSY REISZ (NÉE BLAIR): actress KAREL REISZ: filmmaker SUSANNAH CLAPP: friend of MK, worked at London Review of Books CESIA WILMERS (GRANNY WILMERS): MK’s mother MR.
